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18 Pièces Nouvelles, Op 90

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Details

No 15: Paraphrase on a chorus of Judas Maccabaeus by Handel 'See the conqu'ring hero comes!'

Alexandre Guilmant was a concert organist and composer based in Paris, who was also a considerable musical scholar. He was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer into a family of organists and organ builders, and was largely self-taught. He undertook a brief period of formal study with the great Belgian organist Lemmens, practising for six to eight hours a day for a period of a month, after which, according to Joseph Bonnet, Lemmens proclaimed that he ‘could fly with his own wings’.

He became organist at La Trinité in Paris but achieved fame in the concert hall. He gave the inaugural recitals on many organs in France, including that of the Paris Trocadéro whose Cavaillé-Coll instrument he employed for many years to popularise good music. He was received by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and during the course of his career received many honours.

He founded, with Vincent d’Indy and Charles Bordes, the Schola Cantorum in Paris, a musical academy deeply imbued with the charisma of César Franck and whose courses of study were closely related to plainsong and the classics. This philosophy led to Guilmant editing much organ music from the past. He also seems to have taken a particular interest in Handel’s oratorios, writing for organ a Grand choeur alla Handel plus a march based on ‘Lift up your heads’ from Messiah and this paraphrase on the triumphant chorus from the final act of Judas Maccabaeus, as the hero of the oratorio returns to Jerusalem after defeating the Syrians.

The piece is dedicated to an American pupil of the composer, Mrs Saenger, who lived in New York.